IBM to make “sweeping workforce reduction”

Vermont Business Magazine reports that IBM officials have told Gov. Peter Shumlin (D) that its Essex Junction plant will be targeted as part of “a sweeping workforce reduction”.

Shumlin told the magazine that he did not know how many will be laid off at the Vermont plant.

According to several Internet sources, IBM's Vermont Design Center and wafer fabrication plant is the state's largest private employer, with 4,200 skilled workers.

In recent years, several news reports, appearing in Forbes and the Wall Street Journal, have noted that the high cost of operating an industrial-scale business in Vermont is an on-going concern for IBM executives.

In a recent Burlington Free Press article, a union official said that any layoffs would be the result of IBM’s giant $1 billion restructuring effort.